Captain In Navy Relieved Of Command After Accident

NORFOLK — The Navy captain who supervised the USS Iwo Jima and the ship that fired upon it, killing an officer in October, has been relieved of his command, Navy officials said Tuesday.

Capt. Jerry R. McDonald, commander of Amphibious Squadron Six, was relieved of that command on Jan. 23, midway through a six-month deployment, said a Navy spokesman.

Capt. Alan B. Moser took command of the five-ship Mediterranean Amphibious Ready Group, said Lt. Cmdr. John Lloyd, spokesman for Naval Surface Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. The group accompanied the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal on a deployment that began Oct. 11 and ends this week.

McDonald was relieved of command pending completion of an investigation into a weapons firing accident Oct. 11, in which Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Kirtley, 32, of Kirkwood, Mo., was killed, Lloyd said.

The investigation is still incomplete, Lloyd said.

McDonald was assigned to the Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship, at the time of the accident, Lloyd said. The ships had left Norfolk on deployment less than 12 hours before the accident.

In the accident, Kirtley, the ship's navigator, and Petty Officer 1st Class David K. Rawls, were on the bridge of the Iwo Jima when it was sprayed by shrapnel fired from the amphibious cargo ship USS El Paso.

Rawls was hit in the elbow and transported to Portsmouth Naval Hospital for treatment. Kirtley was killed.

The accident occurred as the ships conducted routine testing of their close-in weapons systems for the start of the deployment.

The testing requires firing at a target towed by an aircraft in the vicinity of the ships, Navy officials said.

The close-in weapons system is a six-barrel gun that fires 20mm projectiles at a rate of 3,000 rounds per minute to defend against anti-ship missiles.